WEST LAFAYETTE – As quickly as they arrived and multiplied late last summer in West Lafayette, Bird electric scooters disappeared at Christmas.

The Santa Monica, California, company late last week told West Lafayette officials that it would take its smartphone-activated rental scooters out of the home of Purdue University for the winter.

By Wednesday, the day after Christmas, there were few scooters to be found on corners where, as of Friday, there had been dozens waiting for short rides through the Village, West Lafayette neighborhoods or Purdue’s campus.

“Well, I managed to find one sitting on someone’s porch,” Erik Carlson, West Lafayette development director, said Wednesday. “But they told us they were pulling out, and they did.”

The official word from Bird Rides Inc., funneled through a public relations firm to the J&C, was that “some of the Birds are going on winter break while students are away during the holidays.”